ABSTINENCE is more particularly uſed for a ſpare diet, or a ſlender paſſimonious uſe of food. Phyſicians relate wonders of the effects of abſtinence in the cure of many diſorders, and protracting the term of life. The noble Venetian Cornaro, after all imaginable means had proved vain, ſo that his life was deſpaired of at 40, recovered, and lived to near 100, by the mere effect of abſtinence; as he himſelf gives the account. It is indeed ſurpriſing to what a great age the primitive Chriſtians of the eaſt, who retired from the perſecutions into the deſerts of Arabia and Egypt, lived,
Abstained, healthful and cheerful, on a very little food. Cassian assures us, that the common rate for 24 hours was 12 ounces of bread, and pure water: with such frugal fare St Anthony lived 105 years; James the Hermit, 104; Arsenius, tutor of the emperor Arcadius, 120; St Epiphanius, 115; Simeon the Stylite, 112; and Romuald, 120. Indeed, we can match these instances of longevity at home. Buchanan informs us, that one Laurence arrived at the great age of 140 by force of temperance and labour; and Spottwood mentions one Kentigern, afterwards called St Mongah or Mungo, who lived to 185 by the same means. Abstinence, however, is to be recommended only as it means a proper regimen; for in general it must have bad consequences when observed without a due regard to constitution, age, strength, &c. According to Dr Cheyne, most of the chronicl diseases, the infirmities of old age, and the short lives of Englishmen, are owing to repletion; and may be either cured, prevented, or remedied by abstinence; but then the kinds of abstinence which ought to be observed, either in sickness or health, are to be deduced from the laws of diet and regimen.
Among the inferior animals, we see extraordinary instances of long abstinence. The serpent kind, in particular, bear abstinence to a wonderful degree. We have seen rattle-snakes which had lived many months without any food, yet still retained their vigour and fierceness. Dr Shaw speaks of a couple of cerastes (a sort of Egyptian serpents), which had been kept five years in a bottle close corked, without any sort of food, unless a small quantity of sand in which they coiled themselves up in the bottom of the vessel may be reckoned as such: yet when he saw them, they had newly cast their skins, and were as brisk and lively as if just taken. But it is natural for divers species to pass four, five, or six months every year, without either eating or drinking. Accordingly, the tortoise, bear, dormouse, serpent, &c. are observed regularly to retire, at those seasons, to their respective cells, and hide themselves, some in the caverns of rocks or ruins; others dig holes under ground; others get into woods, and lay themselves up in the clefts of trees; others bury themselves under water, &c. And these animals are found as fat and fleshy, after some months abstinence, as before.—Sir G. Ent* weighed his tortoise several years successively, at its going to earth in October, and coming out again in March; and found, that of four pounds four ounces, it only used to lose about one ounce. Indeed we have instances of men passing several months as strictly abstinent as other creatures. In particular, the records of the Tower mention a Scotchman imprisoned for felony, and strictly watched in that fortress for six weeks, during which time he did not take the least sustenance; and on this account he obtained his pardon. Numberless instances of extraordinary abstinence, particularly from morbid causes, are to be found in the different periodical Memoirs, Transactions, Ephemerides, &c. It is to be added, that, in most instances of extraordinary human abstinence related by naturalists, there were said to have been apparent marks of a texture of blood and humours, much like that of the animals above mentioned. Though it is no improbable opinion, that the air itself may furnish something for nutrition, it is certain, there are sub-
stances of all kinds, animal, vegetable, &c. Floating Abstinents in the atmosphere, which must be continually taken in by respiration; and that an animal body may be nourished thereby, is evident in the instance of vipers; which if taken when first brought forth, and kept from every thing but air, will yet grow very considerably in a few days. So the eggs of lizards are observed to increase in bulk, after they are produced, though there be nothing to furnish the increment but air alone; in like manner as the eggs or spawn of fishes grow and are nourished with the water. And hence, say some, it is that cooks, turnspit dogs, &c. though they eat but little, yet are usually fat. See Fasting.